Poor diet early in life may predispose women to develop breast cancer, research suggests.

A US study of young mice showed that a diet linked to obesity and harmful metabolic changes stimulated early breast growth.

It also led to abnormal tissues in the breast that may produce breast cancer.

Lead researcher Russ Hovey, from the University of California at Davis, said: “The findings of this study are particularly important when we superimpose them on data showing that girls are experiencing breast development at earlier ages, coincident with a growing epidemic of childhood obesity.”

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists pointed out that postmenopausal women with raised insulin levels had an increased risk of breast cancer.